The smuggling of undocumented Haitian immigrants from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico is a new trend in the Caribbean, and possibly operated by family members in South Florida.

“The new thing that’s happening is in the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and it’s being fueled, we think, by money from relatives probably, almost assuredly up here in South Florida,” said Rear Adm. William D. Baumgartner, commander of the Seventh U.S. Coast Guard District in Miami.